Saying No to Disney…But Will Christians Say Yes to Anything?

I saw a comment regarding Disney’s decision to feature a child with two moms on their family sitcom, Good Luck Charlie suggesting it was time for Christians to “say no to Disney.”

The question that occurred to me is, What should we say yes to?

Should we say yes to any other Hollywood studio? Which one isn’t promoting some sort of immorality in some of its films? Are people suggesting we punish Hollywood for the same reason people are more angry with Marco Rubio over the immigration bill than anyone else? Because we expect better of Disney.

Should we say yes to Christian filmmakers and direct our entertainment dollars there? Despite some reasonably successful films, that industry is hardly engaging the wide-spread support of Christian views.

Cultural critics are right to stew at media turning against traditional values, but saying no isn’t enough. One of the great problems we’ve faced is that Christians have produced far more criticism of popular culture than they have coherent strategies to address its influence. The solution for most Christians is to be disengaged from the process: the result is that those that produce popular culture are overwhelming secularist or pagan in their worldview and those who are nominally Christian and work in the entertainment industry tend to share the worldview of their colleagues rather than an Orthodox Christian worldview.

This presents a real problem as Americans continue to consume popular culture and expose themselves to the influence of this industry at an ever increasing rate and it does matter. Both Joe Biden and Rick Santorum cited the sitcom Will and Grace in explaining America’s growing support for same sex “marriage.” The fact is that the in terms of influencing the future of the country, the average national television producer is far more important than most members of Congress in shaping the minds and hearts of the American people.

Some are beginning to recognize this. Former Senator and Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum announced he was joining Christian film producer Echolight Studios.

It’s about time for these sort of actions. Christians need to plan to address this problem and simply saying, “no” isn’t going to cut it.

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About Adam Graham

Adam Graham is a follower of Christ and a contributor at PJ Media. He is the author of the novel, Tales of the Dim Knight (with his wife Andrea) as well, All I Needed to Know I Learned from Columbo He is also a published novelist having written with his wife Andrea, Tales of the Dim Knight. He has been an adult Sunday School teacher. He is also the former President of his local American Christian Fiction Writers Chapter. Adam also ran for the Idaho House of Representatives in 2004. You can follow him on Twitter @idahoguy

Comments

And this is why religious right-wing activists are considered to be extremists. It’s a TV programme – if you don’t like it, don’t watch it. What makes you think anyone cares what you think about and what programmes you watch – I’m quite sure they don’t. But you seem to have an extreme authoritarian Stalinist[-era fixation with controlling the lives of everybody else. This control-freakery just makes people look moronic and unhinged. When will right-wing Christians just step back, take a long look at how they behave, and realise that the rest of the world don’t want to put up with this nonsense.

And how dare you people speak like you represent all Christians – right-wingers are a fringe group, most Christians are in favor of full equal rights, they don’t want to be mean and nasty like the right-wingers, they don’t want to be excluding people, they want to be inclusive. Honestly, grow up. Somebody needs to tell you – you’re making all Christians look bad. And it’s very un-Christian behavior.

Nobody is judging you for your behavior, we are merely using God’s word as a guide for our own lives. It’s certainly your choice to do as you please just as it’s my choice to not partake in , or condone activities that are clearly forbidden by God.

It’s supposed to be a TV program for KIDS. I stand for no meanness or nastiness. I stand for an orthodox Christian understanding of human sexuality. I also don’t favor kids being taught about these sort of things on a kids program.

If you actually bothered to read the piece, you’d see I was calling for Christians to produce positive entertainment, not merely protesting this show. But apparently, this is the way of the comment troll.

Gee , why don’t you practice what you preach? You, too, could also disengage from that which you find so repugnant, such as us religious fanatics. You also have an off button on your TV and computer if you find our beliefs so objectionable. Yet, here you are engaging full bore, criticizing and being intolerant of those who disagree with you.

I agree Hollywood is influencing more than the Bible, for sure. We didn’t have a TV until I was in 9th grade. I grew up doing other things I liked and enjoyed and still to this day I do not like TV or movies. Several years ago we had to get rid of TV again. If there would happen to be a good show, the commercials were not good. Sports shows, the immodesty and immorality is just too much. I don’t know how anyone that calls themselves a Christian can watch. Too much ungodliness. There are plenty of other things to do with your time that are healthy, that contribute to happy marriages and lives instead of tearing them apart. The entertainment industry has definitely been the main cause to the downhill slippery slope to where this country is now. Instead of Disneyland etc… play table games with your kids…take them to a city park and push them on the swings… kids need you, your love and your time. They also learn to get along with others. Thanks for the article.